Absorbing Finances, Enhanced Crude Production top on Zangenehs Oil Agenda

2017-08-21

TEHRAN, Aug. 21 (Shana) – Iranian Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh says tapping foreign finances in order to fund development of Irans joint oil and gas reserves and boosting the production rate of reservoirs are top on his agenda in the Iranian Ministry of Petroleum.

Speaking in a televised interview Sunday night, the official said, "Neglecting the issues of enhanced oil recovery from the reserves would lead our oil production to a critical state."

Iran needs at least $200 billion in fresh investments and state-of-the-art technologies in its oil and gas sector.

The recovery rate of the country's oil reserves is below 30% currently which means only 200 mb out of every 700 mb of oil can be recovered from Iran's oil reserves, said Mr. Zangeneh, who has just secured a parliament nod to stay in office as Petroleum Minister of Iran in President Rouhani's second term.

He named Ab Teymour, Mansouri, the oil layer of South Pars gas field, Changouleh, Azar, Azadegan and Yaran as the most important fields to be developed over the next 4 years.

Enhanced Natural Gas Production and Export

The official further added that boosting export of natural gas is another important issue on the Iranian Ministry of Petroleum's agenda.

"In this sector, the first priority is concluding development projects at the joint South Pars gas field of which 6 phases are still incomplete but are scheduled to come on-stream during the current [calendar] year or the next year."

He further said Iran has introduced $5b of projects aimed at reducing flaring of natural gas which include Bidboland II, NGL 3100 and NGL 3200 projects.

Asked about the fate of the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline Mr. Zangeneh said that Islamabad has not been clear about its plans regarding construction of its share of the pipeline.

"We have so far spent billions of dollars for construction of our share of the project but the project has been halted at the Iran-Pakistan borderline; Pakistan used to say that the sanctions on Tehran had limited its cooperation in the project but it is now nearly 2 years that the sanctions have been lifted; such behavior is unacceptable in international trade."